The Latin American/Caribbean Speaker Series is pleased to present
Nela Rio
Acclaimed Argentine-Canadian poet, writer, arts organizer, and women’s rights advocate
Speaking on
Silenced Voices and Representations of Violence:
Latin American Female Writers and Memory Construction
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
7:30 pm
221 NFAC
Free and open to the public
Nela Rio is committed to using writing as a tool for remembrance. In this presentation, she
will discuss and read from her work in which she recalls the lives of women she has known
in her native country and in her work with refugees and immigrants in Canada, her adopted
home. Through her writing, Rio’s objective is not to make a political statement, but rather
to portray the spiritual context and foundation that undergird the struggle for human rights.
Professor Rio makes her home in Fredericton, New Brunswick, where for many years she
taught Latin American literature at St Thomas University. She retired in 2003. Her research
specializes in 16th- and 17th-century Spanish American colonial literature and in HispanicCanadian literature. She has been widely published in literary journals and anthologies in
Canada, Spain, the United States, Honduras, Brazil, and Argentina. Professor Rio is the
President of the Registro Creativo of the Canadian Association of Hispanists; the founder
and organizer of the Annual Multicultural Multilingual Poetry Recital (since 2000); and the
organizer and coordinator of Outspoken Art/Arte Claro, for the elimination of all forms of
violence against women.
Sponsored by the College of Letters and Science; the Chancellor’s Office; the Office of
Diversity and College Access; the College of Natural Resources; the College of Fine Arts
and Communication; the Division of Communication; the Departments of Foreign
Languages, Political Science, Geography and Geology, Sociology and Social Work,
Philosophy, English, and History; the Office of International Programs; the School of
Business/Economics; the Programs in International Studies, Peace Studies, and Women's and
Gender Studies; and the History Club.